While much of America and likely most of Washington D.C. were focusing on former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony on Thursday, the House was doing something truly important: starting the ball rolling to gut Dodd-Frank.
As CNBC reports:
The House passed the Financial Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers and Entrepreneurs Act, a highly controversial measure that stands virtually no chance to pass the Senate. Among the most significant provisions are measures that allow banks to escape heightened regulatory requirements and cut stress tests back from their current annual schedule, while the bill also eviscerates the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In all, the measure takes aim at the Dodd-Frank reforms, which sought less risk and higher capital levels from an industry linked to the crisis and the accompanying Great Recession.
Sean Tuffy, who oversees global regulatory intelligence at Brown Brothers Harriman, pointed out that passage of the Act is unlikely in the Senate, saying, “This is a symbolic victory for the House Republicans. The Senate’s been pretty clear that they’re going to pursue financial regulatory reform, but on their own terms.”
In June 2016, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hansarling (R-TX) stated:
We have to reduce the regulatory burden upon job creators and entrepreneurs. And Dodd-Frank represents the greatest imposition of regulation on our business enterprises of all Obama-era regulations combined. We will be continually shackled to a 1.5 [percent] to 2 percent [gross domestic product] economy until we get rid of Dodd-Frank. The Financial Choice Act is designed to give working Americans that pay increase that they have earned to unshackle the economy and to let the “animal spirits” move yet again through our economy.
Hensarling added that the Act might be broken into smaller pieces so it can pass in the Senate, asserting, “To state the obvious, the Senate is a very different creature from the House. We’ll look for every opportunity to get as much of the Financial Choice Act onto President Trump’s desk as is possible. I hope that’s through an omnibus bill. If not, we’ll look at other options, including reconciliation.”